We live in a world where competition is fierce. The internet has ripped the market wide open, and customers have access to whatever they want or need, right at their fingertips. There is an increasing number of pest control businesses competing for customers in a crowded virtual environment. To succeed in today’s market, you need to reach more customers and provide them with efficient and effective services.
While you want your business to grow, staying on top of all of the moving parts of a pest control business is challenging. Paper and pencil systems don’t cut it. You need a digital way to keep track of your customers. Not every system is alike, and not every provider understands your industry.
What Is A CRM?
A CRM, customer relationship management technology, is an integrated software that links all components of your business into one platform. Each user has instant access to anything they need, from client data to forms and schedules. Often, these systems offer enhanced customer support through personalized communication, real-time progress updates and easy access to information and service requests. A CRM also provides you with a valuable data-analysis tool that helps you easily see what is working for your employees and customers and what isn’t.
How Does A CRM Work?
CRM software gathers and stores the data from each aspect of a business in one place. Any time changes are made within any component, the updates occur simultaneously and instantaneously across the entire platform. This means when any user accesses the system, they always have the most current information. It’s a great tool for organizing operations and data. It also has computing and analyzing capabilities, making the decision-making process faster and easier in all areas of the business.
Why Do Pest Control Companies Need A CRM?
The nature of the pest control industry makes it a good candidate for CRM software services. The business involves scheduling technicians, paperwork associated with service delivery, chemical tracking and training, along with a host of common business systems. With the complexity of running a pest control company, a customer relationship management system gives you the tools you need to manage and grow your business.
What Should A Pest Control Company Look For In A CRM?
Customer satisfaction is the key to any business, so you want a software system that provides you with all the tools you need to deliver exceptional customer service. Your business’s success also depends on how efficiently every aspect of your business functions. It would be best if you had a CRM that offers both customer and business management tools. Not all systems have the same tools or provide the same degree of functionality. It’s important to consider what each one offers and how well it serves your business.
Cloud-Based Services
Most modern CRM software is cloud-based, but not all. Double-check that the options you are looking at are cloud-ready. Cloud storage is what allows for real-time interactions across all devices and platforms. Without this, you get a digitized organizational tool, but you lose the speed, efficiency and convenience of instantaneous connections and updates for all users.
Another important aspect of a cloud-based CRM is that it allows you to easily scale your services as your business grows. No matter how large or small your business is currently, you can benefit from a cloud-based CRM, and it can grow as you do.
Streamlined Services
As you explore your options, look for a company that streamlines your customer relationship mechanisms. You should be able to provide all customers with individualized experiences that cater to their preferred methods of communication. If a customer prefers a text to a phone call, your office staff and technicians should be able to use the CRM to easily and automatically communicate with customers.
Customer satisfaction is increased when your CRM is streamlined with other aspects of your business. A good service makes it easier to automate scheduling client appointments and send out billing reminders, making life simpler for your customers and staff. It should also make it easier for your technicians to follow up with leads before they lose interest and seek services elsewhere. With a fully streamlined CRM, all aspects of customer relationships are more manageable.
Offline Services
Because some customers inevitably reside in locations that lack a strong cell signal, look for an app that allows your techs to access whatever they need when faced with data connectivity issues. This includes all of their service delivery forms, such as chemical tracking forms, schedules and maps. Similarly, they should be able to access it all from their phone or tablet, allowing them to lose the paper and focus more on their customers than their clipboards.
Technician Service Schedules
When technicians have to make multiple service calls in a day, keeping track of it all on paper is challenging for office managers and technicians. The CRM you choose should offer a dynamic scheduling features so that scheduling appointments is efficient and new work orders can be processed and scheduled quickly. It should also provide you with multiple views, with filtering capabilities that allow you to select only the technicians, service areas or work units you want to see.
Route Optimization Services
Your techs can save a lot of time when they know the best route to each service call on their schedule. When technicians have the power to reschedule their jobs based on best-fit route optimization criteria and get up-to-date recommendations on the quickest way to get to each appointment, you improve their efficiency and reduce their frustrations.
Customer Communication Tools
It helps to have a CRM that offers fluid communication between every department and your customers. The software should allow for messaging within the system as well as email and text functions. Your customers need to know that they can communicate using their preferred method, and they should be able to contact a tech when an issue arises or when they need to update their services. Office staff need to be able to track and contact techs out in the field as well. A good CRM can streamline and automate all of your communication tools.
| RELATED ARTICLE: How to Generate More Pest Control Leads
Accounting And Business Operations Tools
A pest control CRM system can also help you with your office management tasks. When you have a system that allows you to increase your business’s efficiency in billing and accounts receivable, organize services and customer profiles, and analyze business operations, you can focus more of your attention on growing your business. The CRM you choose should also be able to analyze different data and provide you with a report. Given the day-to-day fluctuations in a pest control company, the system needs a dashboard that gives you a quick reference for keeping track of what’s going on with your business.
User-Friendly Services
These tools and services may sound great, but if it is difficult for your technicians, staff, and customers to use, you will have wasted time and money on the product. You need a CRM that is easy to set up and doesn’t require intensive and time-consuming training for your techs and staff. The tools need to be user-friendly and intuitive. When you invest in a CRM, you want to implement it as quickly as possible to reap the benefits.
Where Can You Get A CRM System Designed For Pest Control Businesses?
Briostack provides customer relationship management software designed for the pest control industry. Our founder has worked in the pest control industry for years and built our CRM software to cater to your pest control business needs. With Briostack, you’ll discover how much more efficiently your business operates. Contact us today to find out what Briostack can do for your pest control business.